Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/01/30

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Subject: [Leica] Rant!
From: jshulman at judgecrater.com (Jim Shulman)
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:56:31 -0500
References: <18699496.1327981263865.JavaMail.root@mswamui-backed.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

Doug,
I just spent the day being stood up by two colleagues (the second who
blamed me for not receiving a text message he sent to my landline!),
hearing a copout about two more meetings from tomorrow, and no answers
about a reschedule from a third.

Accept it--lousy is the new normal.  All we can do is our best to
transcend it.

Presumably there will be someone who respects the differences among birds,
rather than something with a lot of "color" and flapping wings.   I think
you can find some of those select few folks on this list.

All best,
Jim


-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jshulman=judgecrater.com at leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jshulman=judgecrater.com at leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Doug Herr
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 10:41 PM
To: lug at leica-users.org
Subject: [Leica] Rant!

I went to a talk on Friday night on bird photography by a well-known
wildlife photographer who is sponsored by one of the Big Two camera
makers.  I won't mention names.  What a friggin waste of time & gasoline.
If I'd had to pay for parking I'd have demanded a refund.  His approach to
wildlife photography is buy-the-longest-lens-you-can and
buy-the-newest-and-fastest-(sponsor brand)-body-you-can, and he came
across as the sponsor's paid spokesman (which he is).

He said NOTHING about light except for how to use more flash, NOTHING
about composition, color (except more is better), NOTHING about bird
psycology or bird identification, except for hiring a bird guide (more on
this after I stop seething).

His photos were compositionally shallow and bland: no use of color or
forms to give a sense of depth or to draw attention to the bird, hardly
any discussion of the foreground or background except how to obliterate
it.  The best I can say for his photos is that they show what the bird
looks like.  Nothing about how it relates to its habitat.  Empty, shallow
mainstream photos.  And the camera maker pays him to promote this and
"teach" it to the unsuspecting wanna-bes.

I'm still seething but I gotta get this out of my system:  He can't
identify some really obvious western birds - and he's lived in the west
most of his life.  He got Great Egret, Mountain Bluebird and Williamson's
Sapsucker right but he showed a couple of captive raptors side-by-side,
photos made at a rescue facility where he was TOLD what they are and he
thought the birds in his photos were the same individual, when one was
obviously a Prairie Falcon and the other was obviously a Buteo, probably a
Red-tailed Hawk.  They didn't even have the same eye color.  He couldn't
identify a Rail in one of his photos (fullframe, good light).  He had no
idea if it was a Virginia Rail, a Clapper Rail or a King Rail.

This is the crap that a major camera maker is promoting as wildlife
photography.  This is what the sponsor has trained the unsuspecting
consumer to think of as good wildlife photography.  Buy our stuff and you
too can make these great photos.

Grrrrrr grrrrrrr grrrrrr grrrrrrr grrrrrr grrrrrrr.


Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com



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In reply to: Message from wildlightphoto at earthlink.net (Doug Herr) ([Leica] Rant!)